Major breakthrough! Major breakthrough! Scientists have isolated the cause of the debilitating attacks that have plagued tens of thousands of individuals around the globe. A food additive combined with an extremely rare genetic marker created a physical situation where the normal stress response is magnified to absurd proportions. If we could just remove all stressors from the lives of those affected we would never see any attacks. But many people lead lives full of stress, and the first attack is understandably a stressor, leading to more . . .
Breaking news! Breaking news! Study strongly suggests that removing said food additive from your diet will stop the recurrence of attacks within one month! Once the body breaks it down it is gone; study suggests that participants are free from attacks going forward. The medical community celebrates indefinitely. Formulas are adjusted and food labels proudly proclaim freedom from the leprous substance (the price of many baked goods and cereals climbs slightly). People in many countries rejoice that they will no longer need to travel for the surgery.
Once again, society has forgotten the scarries. What can be done for them? Well, probably nothing. On the one hand, they no longer experience excruciating pain; on the other, they are already gay (and, as some demand to know, why wouldn't they want to be?). There is little political or medical motivation to research any further "cure" for them. Society having grappled with scarries as a new reality with varying degrees of success, many are quietly grateful to think of them instead as a medical oddity, fascinating to read about but not big enough to change history. So the scarries continue their lives, glad to no longer need to define themselves as such.
One last small wrinkle remains—the surgery, though expensive and no longer covered by insurance or charitable foundations, still exists, and could still be performed on any sufferer who would not mind, or who would wish, to be gay. No case has been documented in the medical literature, and doctors are understandably leery of attempting it, of the surgery being performed on anyone who was not suffering, for the sole purpose of turning them into a homosexual.
The possibility exists, but no one wishes to discuss it.
YOU ARE READING
Never Easy
General Fiction"I've, uh, well, I've been pretty low sometimes in my life, and I know you probably don't want me to say this, but-" Jason sighed as if steeling himself to say what he needed to say next, "what I've learned is that you can't try to do it all on your...
